Wreath making

This week my Garden club is making wreath for the Fall Arts Festival. I started to dry some things in my Potting shed and now I just cut some Hydrangeas, I love how they look here. I am not done yet. I will try to take some pictures as we make them and when they are done.

More to come later this week. Enjoy this wonderful time of year.

Fall Decorating

Decorations from last year, at my entry, I seem to change it a bit each year and I am not sure what this year will bring, I have a few thoughts, but we will see.

Ok this picture is from this year, big difference, I have painted the outlet covers...now they don't stand out like they did before. The rest of the pictures are from last year before I started to blog. Look at those outlets. See how much we learn from each other. Thanks Linda! Behind my Red Door has a pet peeve. Outlets that show. So I am learning how much better this looks.

My center piece from a couple of years ago copied from Picket, from Pickets Place back when we were all at RMS. You can check out my kitchen when I first finished it HERE.

My pantry, which by the way does not look as neat now, we had just finished the remodel and after 6 months of no kitchen, I had pared down the food supplies and everything was clean, neat and in it's place. hmmm maybe I should reorganize the pantry this week.

My decorations a few years ago......

HAPPY FALL 2009
~Let the season begin~

Beadboard Party

This is the start of my bead board wallpaper going up, covering up this old blue paper.

One wall done before paint. Even this looks better than before.

OK here it is painted and I like it so much better.I love the new look! Thanks Rhoda for the inspiration.Now I am using the updated format, there is no spellcheck...this is bad for me. I can't get my words to go where I want. I really don't like this. I am going to go back in and change back...if I can.

Join Rhoda at Southern Hospitality for her bead board party.

~Cool , damp fall night~

I am starting to see the leaves turn color by the highways and the maples are touched with color. Today is cool and damp, just right for comfort food. I am in the mood for chicken pot pie and biscuits, some warm apple cider. mmmmmmmmmmm

Lots of chicken of course....Cream and butter...I am sure you could do fat free, but this is comfort food so I have made my original recipe that makes me think of home. Cooked vegetables, no veg all this time.

My pie crust with an egg wash, just going into the oven.

Now mind you I got a phone call and everyone was coming home as the chicken pot pie came out of the oven....no biscuit pictures, no finished pie pictures, no table setting, I just plain forgot so the story ends here. Well, not really....it was so good and it got gobbled up really fast. It just looked so nice and I am mad at myself for forgetting to take pictures.
My recipe:

Pie crust

Sift 2 cups of flour
add 1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup cooking oil

3 TBL of ice water

Mix together and cover with a damp cloth, this is a two crust pie, but I use it on a 9x13 pan.

Filling

1 roasting chicken cut up. I use 4 chicken breast that I have cooked for about 40 minutes in the oven at 375 degrees. Cook chicken and cut into bite size pieces. Put aside.

1/2 pounds small white onions, I rough cut 2 lg. onions

2 cups of celery 1 in slices

2 cups of carrots 1 in slices

5 TBL butter

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1 cup half and half

1/4 tsp pepper

salt

1 10 oz package of frozen peas, thawed and drained.

1 1/2 cups of chicken broth.

2 crust pie pastry

1 egg yolk

In a saucepan cook all vegetables, except peas, for about 10 min. Set aside.

In a 1 1/2 qt saucepan over med heat, into hot butter stir flour until blended. Gradually stir in half and half. 1 1/4 tsp. salt, pepper and cook stirring constantly, just to boiling; pour over cooked vegetables in sauce pot. Stir in Chicken and peas and then pour mixture into a 9x13 baking dish.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Roll out pie crust to 11x15.

Fit crust loosely over chicken mixture.

In a small bowl beat egg yolk with 1 tsp of water. Brush pie crust with beaten mixture. Make slits in pie crust. Bake for 40 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Make 9 servings.

The original recipe came from a 1970 Good Housekeeping cookbook. I have changed it a bit over the years, but it is always a favorite in my home!

~ENJOY~

Little bit of Harvest!

My pumpkins and squash are starting to ripen...my favorites are the little white pumpkins. I have started to do some Fall cleaning and decorating and my dining area is a favorite spot to decorate, or should I say my favorite things end up here because I see them the most. Coleus cuttings look so pretty in a jar....the colors are perfect harvest colors.

My little powder room gets some decorations too.

Don't forget the Spiced Pumpkin soap.

There are still pumpkins on the vine, can't wait to see how big they get.

This one is huge already and there are cornstalks to cut, but it is too wet today. See this is why I garden. The great rewards at Harvest time.

Cloche Party at Marty's

Let's all join Marty over at A stroll thru life Marty is having a cloche party. Now I love cloches, I have some for cheese dishes and some that are cake domes, but I wanted to show you my real cloches. I use them in the garden in the Spring. The first one is covering a birds nest in my potting shed. I get mice in my shed so I covered this nest before the mice decide to use it or tear it apart.

This cloche is smaller and it is decorating mode, hence the old pot and mossy ball. It fits just about anywhere.

So those are my cloches....where are yours?

Fall the season of change

This is the NEW color of my front door! I spent all of Labor Day weekend painting, maybe because I did it three times....... This is the old color, it has been this color for over 10 years...time for a change.

I started with classic burgundy, but that was just too red for my home and besides I knew just what color I wanted, I did not have a name for it.

So I put cottage red on it after the last photo, not a noticable difference, so early Monday morning I was back to the paint store. Of course my usual store was not open on Monday so I was off to Home Depot.....poor me, but I had the most helpful salesperson, I showed him pictures and he came up with this color. Devine Wine its called! DEVINE it is. Just what I wanted. So when I finished I had a glass of wine, sat back and admired my new color. Now I have five doors more to go.